Celebrating Baseball Day with those who have dementia

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals,

Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two

Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

The season of spring is here. A person’s fancy turns to baseball.
In fact we celebrate Baseball Day in April. On my activity calendar, I have it co-inside with a home team’s game. My home team is the Boston Red Sox.

So what can we do to make this day special even for the non baseball fan.

First, we can plan a party.
This is always fun even if we do not do everything we plan.
We can make invitations and decorations.

We can read a poem about baseball at the party or at another time when it fits into your schedule.

A good poem is Casey at the Bat

Activities Directors-Ideas for January

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals,

Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire


Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two

Follow alzheimersideas on twitter

The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals and caregivers.
Here are some special days in early January.
You can make an activity out of each one of the items listed
Theirs is something in everyday of January to celebrate. In fact, most days there is more than one thing, so pick and choose to your heart’s content and make every day a special one. Here are a few left over from yesterday’s post - Prune Breakfast Month, National Book Blitz Month, Bread Machine Baking Month, Egg Month, Reaching Your Potential Month, Senior Woman’s Travel Month.

January 1

New Years Day
Betsy Ross’s Birthday (1752)
French New Year (Le Jour de l’an)
Ellis Island Anniversary (opened 1892)
Paul Revere’s Birthday (1735)
Income Tax (the first U.S. income tax in effect, 1862)
Panama Canal (beginning of building it in 1880)
1st Tournament of Roses (Pasadena, CA, 1886)
Chattananooga Choo Choo #1 Song (Glenn Miller,1942)
Sixteen Tons #1 Song (Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1956)
The Sounds of Silence #1 Song (Simon & Garfunkel, 1966)
Time in a Bottle #1 Song (Jim Croce, 1974)

Drug-Induced Dementia and Delirium Common in Seniors But Often Undetected, Public Citizen Says

Activities directors and other healthcare professionals here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals and categivers, here is something you should know

CommonDreams.org

Older patients become more susceptible to drug-induced dementia and delirium as they age, but the symptoms are often overlooked by doctors who don't realize that the condition may be caused by drugs and reversed, Public Citizen writes in a Worst Pills, Best Pills News article released today on WorstPills.org, the organization's drug safety Web site.

Unlike most forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease, which cannot be reversed, dementia caused by prescription drug use may be stopped by discontinuing the offending medication. The drug safety experts at Public Citizen have identified 136 commonly prescribed medications, especially certain antidepressants and pain medications, that can cause difficulty thinking.

Drug-induced dementia and delirium are commonly misattributed to underlying medical illness or merely to "old age." But by stopping or modifying the dosage of numerous, frequently prescribed drugs, most patients can be restored to a pre-drug state of mental clarity.

Older people are more susceptible to drug-induced delirium and dementia because the body's ability to rid itself of drugs decreases with age, often because of normal age-related decrease in kidney and liver function. Also, older patients are often prescribed multiple drugs at the same time, resulting in complicated interactions and enhanced side effects. Some research also suggests older patients' brains may be more sensitive to drugs' effects on the central nervous system.

"Sadly, doctors don't always recognize cognitive impairment as a side effect, so many patients needlessly suffer from this debilitating but reversible condition," said Sidney Wolfe, M.D., director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group and acting Public Citizen president. "After beginning new drugs, doctors, patients and their families should watch for subtle changes in cognition and assume changes may be caused by drug therapy. People already suffering from some cognitive impairment are most susceptible."

Delirium is a syndrome of changes in vision, hearing and thinking that usually starts abruptly and is commonly seen in the hospital setting or during an acute illness; symptoms typically improve when the cause is treated. Dementia, on the other hand, is a chronic alteration in thinking that progresses slowly. Alzheimer's disease is dementia's most common cause, but it also can be caused by strokes and other conditions.

Limericks that make you smile(part 2)

Activities directors, other healthcareprofessionals and caregivers,here is part 2
alzact

We were discussing limericks yesterday. I said that this is a great mind stimulating, fun activity for those with dementia.

Here is one:
A very smart dog I once knew
Liked to ride on a bike to the zoo
And from what I could tell
He rode it quite well
Though his hand signals truly were few.

You can use this limerick. Just eliminate the...read the whole post

For dementia information, click here

For more Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Celebrating April

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals and caregivers go here

for some great activity ideas for April.

For dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

New therapy is found for dementia patients

Activities directors, other healthcare professinals and caregivers, here is an article which showed what we have already seen to be true
Irish Times
LORNA SIGGINS, Western Correspondent
REMINISCENCE THERAPY can have a significant effect on patients suffering from dementia, according to research due to be presented at an international nursing conference in Galway next week.


Patients engaged in the therapy tend to be far less agitated, and the focus on psycho-social needs benefits both patients and staff, the research at National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) School of Nursing and Midwifery has found.

Reminiscence therapy involves discussing past activities, events and experiences in an individual or group setting, often using aids such as videos, pictures, books and archival material.

NUIG is currently running a project funded by the Health Research Board known as DARES (Dementia Education Programme incorporating Reminiscence Therapy for Staff), which involves training staff to use the approach.

Prof Kathy Murphy, head of NUIG’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, said the incidence of dementia in long-stay care was estimated at 20-30 per cent.

“However, in some instances, it can be up to 50 per cent in residential care, and staff tend to be general nurses who feel that the dementia condition would be more appropriately treated by psychiatric nurses.

“This programme meets the staff needs, and the needs of patients, by helping them to understand dementia better,” she explained.

“There is much more focus now on the psycho-social needs in residential care, and this therapy helps people with this condition to know their history and their past.”

NUIG’s second International Nursing and Midwifery conference will also hear about separate research done at the college on managing chronic illness in a primary care setting.

About 3 per cent of the population suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pulmonary rehabilitation can alleviate the condition.

NUIG is currently training nurses to....read the whole article

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Kimberly-Clark revamps Depend line for men, women

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals and caregivers, here is a product that should be of interest to you. It is especially useful for those with dementia

Reuters
By Jessica Wohl

CHICAGO, - Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB.N) is overhauling its Depend line to offer disposable underwear tailored to men and women as it prepares for an influx of aging Americans who need incontinence products.

Depend has been around for nearly 25 years, but this is the first time it is offering separate versions of absorbent underwear for men and women.

The products, which look more like traditional cotton underwear than an adult diaper, will be available in North American stores in March and appear in Europe later in 2009.

While Depend is a smaller business than other Kimberly-Clark products such as Huggies diapers or Kleenex tissues, it expects an aging population will help boost sales.

Baby Boomers, the generation of Americans born between 1946 and 1964, are heading toward retirement with the oldest set to turn 65 in 2011. Many of them are already caring for parents who may use incontinence products.

Underwear currently accounts for about 75 percent of Depend brand sales.

Six unisex versions of Depend underwear will be replaced by six versions for women and two versions for men. The new products have different leg openings and other changes to fit men's and women's bodies. They offer 28 percent better leakage protection than ......read the whole article

For dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click
here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

A neat trivia activity with a twist

Alzheimer's Activities Expert
Activities Directors,other healthcare professionals and caregivers, here is some valuable information
We know those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias need mind stimulating activities daily.

We also know that persons with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias love trivia because they know the answers

The trick is to present the information in a new format that gives each person a chance to participate.

One activity that I like to do is called Table Ball Trivia.

This activity uses trivia question or statements of your choice, a ball of 16 to 20 inches in diameter, and a table big enough to accomodate the number of participants in your group.

This activity can be done one on one as well.

You also may have to put...read the whole post

For more dementia information, click here

For more Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Having A Parent With Dementia May Affect Memory In Midlife

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals and caregivers, this should interest you

EmaxHealth

Posted under: Brain & Nervous System
People who have parents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia may be more likely to have memory loss themselves in middle age, according to a study released by the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, researchers used the Framingham Heart Study to follow three generations of participants to study risk factors of Alzheimer’s and other diseases. A total of 715 people belonging to the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study with an average age of 59 were included in the research. One group of 282 people had one or both parents with diagnosed dementia. The other group of 433 people had parents without dementia. Scientists tested for a gene thought to be a strong risk factor for dementia, called the ApoEe4 gene.

Among people who were carriers of the ApoEe4 gene, those who had parents with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia had......read the rest of the story

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

What are some good games for Elderly people with Dementia ?

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals and careegivers here are some activity suggestions you may find helpful

As for Games...it would be fun to play

POKER - (and you could round out that $ per. hour income :)
Musical Wheelchairs
Hide and seek ( do this right before break time)
Board game - Concentration
Board Game - Operation ( maybe not:)
lol

In all seriousness here are some suggestions:

NPR has a Great service called :
"Story Corps"- Listening is an Act of Love.
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening.
It is to Record the......read the whole post

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

More activity ideas for March

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers. Do you need more activity ideas for March,then visit this blog for some days for celebration than lend themselves to activity ideas.

As always the author of this blog takes these day celebrations and translates them into activity ideas for those with Alzheimer's disease, related dementias or for anyone in long term care.

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Get Free Supplies For Your Nursing Home

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers, do you a small budget for supplies?

Would you like to get items for free?

Do you have items you no longer use, but are stil in decent shape?

This could be the answer-Freecycle

Read all about it

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Advances for Alzheimer's, Outside the Lab

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers. Here is further validation for something we already know about music and dementia
Time Magazine
They sit demurely in rows of plastic chairs, hands in their laps, awaiting instructions. They have been dressed carefully by their spouses and relatives in ankle-long frocks or neat cardigans, with crisply knotted ties — the overly formal style of the aged

Organizing this unlikely choir is Chreanne Montgomery-Smith, who runs support groups for the Newbury branch of Britain's Alzheimer's Society. On cue, the 40 or so Alzheimer's and dementia patients join hands and begin singing in unison — a tentative rendition of Amazing Grace. They remember most of the words and their chorus fills the hall. Montgomery-Smith is certain that the music helps bring her patients' thoughts — ravaged by dissonance and dislocation — into harmony

You can see how they become lucid....read the whole article

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Alzheimer Patient’s Prayer

As an Activities Director, other healthcare professional, or caregiver here is something you may want to remember

Senior Home Care Blog
Pray for me I was once like you
Be kind and loving to me that’s how I would have treated you
Remember I was once someone’s parent or spouse
I had a life and a dream for the future
Speak to me; I can hear you even if I don’t
understand what you are saying
Speak to me of things in my past of which I can still relate
Be considerate of me, my days are such a struggle
Think of my feelings because I still have them and
can feel pain. Treat me with respect because
I would have treated you that way
Think of how I was before I got Alzheimer’s
I was full of life; I had a life, laughed and loved you
Think of how I am now, my disease distorts
my thinking, my feelings, and my ability to respond
but I still love you even if I can’t tell you
Think about my future because I used too
Remember I was full of hope for the future just like you are now
Think how it would be .......Reaad the whole prayer

For more dementia information, click here
For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here
For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here
For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Quilting, pottery and computer games 'may cut risk of dementia'

You as an activities director, other healthcare professional or caregiver should find this article to be of interest
Telegraph.co.uk

Taking up hobbies such as quilting, pottery and even playing computer games in later life may substantially cut the risk of dementia, a new study suggests.
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Crafts and other activities which exercise the brain, including reading novels and computer games, can all have a protective effect on the mind and help prevent memory loss, the study shows.

By contrast, watching television for hours on end significantly increased the chance of suffering problems, the research found.

Previous studies have shown that those with mentally demanding jobs and high levels of education were less likely to suffer the memory problems associated with the condition.

Researchers found that those with stimulating occupations were less at risk, even when they had physical damage to their brain cells.

The latest research will be seen as further proof that so-called "brain training" machines, such as the Nintendo DS advertised by Nicole Kidman, can help to delay brain..........read the whole article

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Another great sensory activity for those with dementia

Activities directors, other healthcare professinals and caregivers. In case you missed this activity on Alzheimer's Activities Expert , here it is again

Today we will discuss a sensory activity for those with dementia and other lower functioning people. However those who are higher functioning can also enjoy this activity.

Also this activity can be enjoyed all year long by adding or subtracting items specific to certain holidays or seasons.

This is a sensory matching game of sorts. Thus you will have to have two of everything.

You will want to have contrast among the items

Start with................read the whole post

For more dementia information, click here

For more Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Facts from 1950

Quick Facts

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers, here is some fun information you can use for talk
What Things Cost in 1950:
Car: $1,750
Gasoline: 27 cents/gal
House: $14,500
Bread: 14 cents/loaf
Milk: 82 cents/gal
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 235
Average Annual Salary: $3,800
Minimum Wage: 75 cents per hour......click here for more info

For dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activity ideas, click here

Another great dementia activity

Alzheimer's Activities Expert

We are going to digress for this activity using large colorful pictures of babies doing different things.

This is another ideal activity to be done with the flash cards, “Adorable Photographs of Our Baby”

Before the actual beginning of the game, it is probably best to discuss all the different things babies do. There are fourteen baby photograph cards, so gear your discussion towards what is on the photographs. Here is a list of what the babies are doing:

Twp babies kissing
The baby is playing with bright colorful toys in his crib.
The baby is eating. The baby is sweeping.
The baby is cooking
The baby is taking a bath.
The baby is drying off
The baby is being rubbed with body lotion
The baby is resting on a dog
The baby is going for a walk
The baby is singing. 2 pictures.......read the whole post

To see some of the baby pictures, click here
or click here

For more dementia information, click here

Top Valentine Gifts For Those With Dementia

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals and especially caregivers, here are some gift ideas for those who have Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, for Valentine's Day
Heathnewa-stat.com

Valentine’s Day is the perfect chance to give gifts that are not only enjoyable but also beneficial to a person with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. These valentine presents keep on giving

Over 5.1 million Americans are living with dementia. Is one of them someone you know or work with? Get him/her or anyone with Alzheimer's disease a Valentine's Day gift that will keep on giving long after the holiday is gone.

First on the list of gifts is a book by Susan Berg called Adorable Photographs of Our Baby -- Meaningful, Mind-Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones and Involved Professionals, This book features baby photographs that seniors with dementia love. This book shares a plethora of ideas and resources for you.

Another gift dementia persons will fancy is a.....read the whole article

For Alzheimer's and dementia activity ideas, click here

For more information about dementia including some special activities, click here

February Fun

activities Directors, other healthcare professionals and caregivers visit this site for ideas for February activities.

For dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here